As we are set to celebrate 73 rd Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to highlight the achievements of NDA government and announce new measures of development, from the ramparts of Red Fort, New Delhi, after paying tribute to the freedom fighters and leaders of the Indian independence movement.
With abrogation of Article 370 according status of union territories to J&K and Ladakh, for the first time in history, the J&K will hoist tricolour (without separate flag of Kashmir), with national anthem. This time the tricolour is expected to fly high with the slogan of “One nation, One Constitution” from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Assam to Gujarat celebrating the largest democracy.
“India Day parade” will be organised in New York, based on the theme “Support our Troops, Salute our Troops”, on 18th August, by Federation of Indian Association (FIA), in which the American-Indian community will commemorate the sacrifice and valour of Indian soldiers. Also, Banaras Hindu University in Uttar Pradesh is planning to go completely paperless from the Independence Day.
On this occasion, it is equally important to take stock of different aspects of economy and social conditions prevailing in the country. In view of the reverse economic slowdown, the central Government is working on measures including tax cuts and sops for specific sectors, to roll out a host of countercyclical measures and confidence-building steps for private sector to stimulate the economy that is grinding through losses, layoffs and an investment freeze. Indian rupee which is in the region of Rs 70 is expected to slide down further in view of the heavy expenditure incurred for 2019 general elections. The fall in Indian currency can also be attributed to global and domestic cues.
As for public health arena, the country faces shortage of doctors and one allopathic government doctor attends to a population of 11082, which is 10 times more than the WHO recommended a doctor-population ratio of 1:1000. The situation is worst in Bihar where one doctor serves a population of 28391 people. The situation is other states is: Uttar Pradesh (19962 patients per day), Jharkhand (18518), Madhya Pradesh (16996), Chhatisgarh (15916) and Karnataka (13556). Delhi is better in terms of doctor-population ratio amongst other states, where the ratio stands at 1:2203 which is still twice the recommended ratio by WHO.
Country’s literacy rate has grown to 74 percent, from 12 per cent at the end of British rule in 1947. On an average, the male literacy rate is 81.3 per cent and the female literacy rate is at 60.6 per cent.
But this level is below the world average literacy rate of 84 per cent. Rajasthan has the lowest female literacy rate. 92,275 government schools at both elementary and secondary level have only one teacher and one in every 4 schools in rural India, does not have an electricity connection and almost the same number of schools lack a library as per Annual Status of Educational Report (ASER)
